With a meager eight-second lead, Demi Vollering began the final stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift on Sunday. Four climbs up the Col d’Èze later, she had completely erased that slim margin: on the Chemin du Vinaigrier, she mercilessly broke away from Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney, rode solo to the Promenade des Anglais, and on top of that won the stage—her third of this Tour—following earlier victories at Mont Brouilly (Stage 5) and Nice (Stage 8). At the finish line, the final margin stood at 1’18”, more than ten times what it was at the start of the day. Elisa Longo Borghini finished third. Lorena Wiebes took the points classification, and Puck Pieterse claimed the mountains jersey.
It’s exactly the kind of season that calls for such an award. This summer, with her Giro victory, Vollering became only the second rider ever (after Annemiek van Vleuten) to add all three Grand Tours to her list of achievements, and she did so a year after she had to concede defeat to Pauline Ferrand-Prévot in this very same Tour, who relegated her to second place by 3’42” in 2025. Ferrand-Prévot, ill and having fallen to 14th place with no chance of winning, was even forced to withdraw before Stage 8 this year. While the defending champion dropped out, Vollering rose to her very best form.
There was plenty of drama even without her. On the final climb to Nice, during Stage 8, yellow jersey wearer Niewiadoma lost contact with Vollering after teammate Célia Gery forced her into the barriers on a turn. Niewiadoma was furious: “Gery deliberately rode me into the barriers there, forcing me to stop pedaling.” After reviewing the footage, the race jury saw no reason to impose a penalty. Niewiadoma and Gery worked it out themselves before the start of the final stage, after which Vollering struck again on that same climb—this time for good.
Plenty of material for an evening full of stories. On November 2, De Laatste Etappe returns to the Beatrix Theater in Utrecht: music, the Cycling Awards ceremony, and a live cycling talk show featuring Wout Poels, Annemiek van Vleuten, José De Cauwer, Blaudzun, and Sander Kleikers, among others. Last year, the Female Cyclist of the Year title went to Lorena Wiebes. You’ll be the first to hear there whether Vollering will dethrone her with an overall victory, three stage wins, and the complete Grand Tour trifecta.
